His Life and Career LS Lowry - His Life and Career Art School 1905 "If people call me a Sunday painter I'm a Sunday painter who paints every day of the week!" Lowry was always irritated by people who thought he was an amateur painter, self-taught and untutored. "Started when I was fifteen. Don't know why. Aunt said I was no good for anything else, so they might as well send me to Art School..." In 1905 he began evening classes in antique and freehand drawing. He was to study both in the Manchester Academy of Fine Art and at Salford Royal Technical College in Peel Park. Academic records show him still attending classes in the 1920s. Lowry knew from his teachers - people like the Frenchman Adolphe Valette - how French Impressionism had changed the painting of landscapes and the modern city. He knew from exhibitions in Manchester what the current trends in modern art were, and deeply admired Pre-Raphaelites like Ford Madox Brown and Rossetti.

Far from being a naïve Sunday painter, Lowry was an artist looking for his own distinctive way of painting and drawing - and for a subject matter he could make his own, preferring eventually the view from the Technical College window to that of the posed model. A Painter's Vision, 1920 In his early years Lowry lived in the leafy Manchester suburb of Victoria Park. Then lack of money obliged his family to move to Station Road, Pendlebury, where factory chimneys were a more familiar sight then trees. Lowry would recall "At first I detested it, and then, after years I got pretty interested in it, then obsessed by it." The subjects for his paintings were on his doorstep. In later life he recalled this as a sort of vision. "One day I missed a train from Pendlebury - (a place) I had ignored for seven years - and as I left the station I saw the Acme Spinning Company's mill … The huge black framework of rows of yellow-lit windows standing up against the sad, damp charged afternoon sky. The mill was turning out...

I watched this scene - which I'd looked at many times without seeing - with rapture..." An Appreciation, 1921 A writer in The Guardian newspaper, Bernard Taylor, recognised the real quality of Lowry's work, when he reviewed one of the artist's earliest exhibitions. "Mr Laurence S Lowry has a very interesting and individual outlook. His subjects are Manchester and Lancashire street scenes, interpreted with technical means as yet imperfect, but with real imagination... We hear a great deal nowadays about recovering the simplicity of vision of primitives in art. These pictures are authentically primitive, the real thing not an artificially cultivated likeness to it. The problems of representation are solved not by reference to established conventions, but by sheer determination to express what the artist has felt, whether the result is according to rule or not..." The Industrial Scene late 1920s - 1930s Lowry worked as rent collector for the Pall Mall Property Company. He did not tell people about his work because he did not want them to think of him as a spare-time painter. His job led to him walking all over the city. What did he see?

Children playing in the streets, people returning from work, going off to work, gossip on the front steps, incidents, market places and Whit-processions. But all this changed in his lifetime: blitz and rebuilding, slum clearances and new housing, changed the face of the city he had observed so well. "I saw the industrial scene and I was affected by it. I tried to paint it all the time. I tried to paint the industrial scene as best I could. It wasn't easy. Well, a camera could have done the scene straight off." Artist at Work Lowry felt that drawings were as hard to do as painting. He worked the surface of his drawings by smudging, erasing and rubbing the pencil lines on his paper to build the atmosphere of the drawing. He was always doing quick sketches on the spot on whatever paper he had in his pockets. Lowry carefully composed his pictures in a painting room at home and took great care over placing each figure. Late in life he would sit before a canvas or board on his easel and not know what was going to be in the painting until he started working. He called them "dreamscapes".

Bernard Taylor made the suggestion that helped Lowry to get into his painting the stark figures and the pallor of the industrial sky that he wanted. Taylor suggested he painted on a pure white background. Lowry experimented with layers of white paint on boards, leaving them for a time so the surface went creamy. Colour Lowry used a very basic range of colours, which he mixed on his palette and painted on the white background. "I am a simple man, and I use simple materials: ivory, black, vermilion (red), Prussian blue, yellow ochre, flake white and no medium (e.g. linseed oil). That's all I've ever used in my paintings. I like oils... I like a medium you can work into over a period of time". Looking closely at the surface of Lowry's paintings shows us the variety of ways he worked the paint with brushes (using both ends), with his fingers and with sticks or a nail. Some paintings are painted over other images. The 1938 painting Head of a Man (Man with Red Eyes) when x-rayed showed a female portrait and possibly a self-portrait underneath. He was once asked what he did with his old suits. "Wear them", came the reply!

He certainly wore them to paint in, wiping the brushes on his lapels and sleeves. Desolation Row 1930s - 1940s Lowry's father died in 1932. For the next seven years, his 73 year old mother became 'bed fast' and completely ruled her son's life. After her death in 1939, Lowry painted The Bedroom Pendlebury - in memory of those long hours he spent looking after her. She always demanded his attention. Lowry would only get to his painting room late at night after she had settled. "She did not understand my painting, but she understood me and that was enough." These were years of isolation and growing despair, reflected in Lowry's paintings. They depict derelict buildings and wastelands as mirrors of himself. As an official war artist - himself emotionally blitzed - he drew the ruined shells of bombed-out buildings. In1939, the year his mother died - the person he most wanted to please - he tasted success with his first London exhibition. "After she died, I lost all interest." Continuing to paint was his "salvation".

Private Man, Public Figure 1950s - 1970s Just when Lowry began to have success he was moving away from the subjects that everybody wanted him to paint. "Had I not been lonely none of my works would have happened". Some of his most powerful pictures are deserted landscapes and seascapes. Some of the most difficult pictures to like are of solitary figures and down and outs. "I feel more strongly about these people than I ever did about the industrial scene. They are real people, sad people. I'm attracted to sadness and there are some very sad things. I feel like them." Everything came too late for Lowry. But his late years saw him become a popular celebrity. He also became preoccupied about whether his art would last. "Will I live?" he asked over and over again, like the art of the Pre-Raphaelites he collected and loved. From Childhood to Childhood 1976 "I painted from childhood to childhood." Lowry painted and drew into his old age - often protesting to interviewers that he had "given up", "packed it in". He died aged 88 in 1976 just months before a retrospective exhibition opened at the Royal Academy.

It broke all attendance records for a twentieth century artist. Salford Museum & Art Gallery began collecting the artist's work in 1936 and gradually built up the collection which is now at the heart of the award-winning building bearing the artist's name, celebrating his art and transforming the cityscape again. Pier 8, Salford Quays, M50 3AZ Box Office: 0843 208 6000 Groups Line: 0843 208 6003 Calls to 08 numbers will cost 7p per minute plus your network operator’s access charge. L.S. Lowry | Biography (1887-1976) (Laurence Stephen Lowry) Biography 1 8 8 7 - 1 9 7 6 Laurence Stephen Lowry was born in Rusholme, Manchester, in November 1887, the only child of Irish-born R S Lowry and Elizabeth Lowry (n�e Hobson).

He attended a local school in Victoria Park, but took private lessons from William Fitz, before starting work as a clerk for a firm of chartered accountants in 1904 ... more Jan. 17: Added extensive scans and review of L.S. Lowry: A Biography Paperback (1999) Feb. 15: Details and scans added of the Lowry Tate Britain exhibition poster now no longer made. 1 new and sealed one in stock. View here Sept. 13: Details and scans of the Lowry Tate Britain exhibition. View smartphone page here Sept. 13: Scanned an adorable Lowry on general display at Tate Britain. View smartphone page here with amazing paintings from other artist Review. OIL (1925) © ESTATE OF L.S. LOWRY From 1905-1915 he attended drawing and painting classes at the Municipal College of Art (later Manchester College of Art, and now part of Manchester Metropolitan University), where he was tutored by Adolphe Valette. Lowry moved to Pendlebury in Salford with his parents in 1909, where he was to live for nearly 40 years.

During this time he attended art classes at Salford School of Art, developing an interest in the urban and industrial landscape. He exhibited with the Manchester Academy of Fine Arts from 1919, as well as entering paintings in the Paris Salon By the early 1930s he was exhibiting at the Royal Academy in London. He was awarded an honorary MA at Manchester University in 1945, and Doctor of Letters in 1961, elected to the Royal Academy in 1962, and given freedom of the City of Salford in 1965. He lived in Mottram until he died in 1976 - a death marked by unprecedented homage by the 'ordinary people' of Manchester. L.S. Lowry is unquestionably one of the most celebrated British artists and his unique contribution to recording the period, culture and landscape of industrial Salford and Manchester is without parallel. His work is a most distinctive and comprehensive record of the pre and post World War Two northern industrial town. Many people associate Lowry with �matchstick men�, but he is known to have produced over 10,000 works, ranging from finished oil paintings to hastily drawn sketches.

The local industrial scene was his most frequent subject but he also painted seascapes and portraits. He was a great humorist and had intense insight into human nature, characterising it without sentiment. Later in his life he concentrated on producing paintings of figures either singly or in groups, invariably against a white background. He also produced thousand of pencil drawings during his lifetime, these are now very collectable and the best ones are incredibly detailed Lowry died without a registered doctor, leading the galleries a merry dance. Hoping to inherit a few paintings in his will, they courted him in his old age only to find he had left them all to a girl, also called Lowry, who had written him a letter years before, asking how she could become an artist. Lowry's status as one of the major British artists of the 20th Century was reinforced when the painting Going To The Match was sold at Auction for a record �1.9 million to the Manchester-based Professional Footballers Association. Manchester's premier gallery, The Lowry Centre in Salford Quays, now holds a major collection of his work. BIOG.

II Laurence Stephen Lowry was born in Manchester in November 1887, the only child of Irish-born parents. From 1905-1915 L.S. Lowry attended drawing and painting classes at the Municipal College of Art. He moved to Salford with his parents in 1909, where he was to live for nearly 40 years. During this time he attended art classes at Salford School of Art, developing an interest in the urban and industrial landscape. Laurence Stephen Lowry exhibited with the Manchester Academy of Fine Arts from 1919. He exhibited at and was elected to the Royal Academy in 1962, and given freedom of the City of Salford in 1965. L.S. Lowry is unquestionably one of the most celebrated British artists and his unique contribution to recording the period, culture and landscape of the industrial north is without parallel Among his collectors and admirers is the actor Albert Finney. He grew up in the area and knew the landscapes Lowry painted. TRIVIA Lowry died just a few months before a major exhibition of his work was held at London's Royal Academy.

It drew more than 350,000 visitors, breaking all Academy's records. In 1968 he was offered a knighthood but turned it down. He bought paintings by Honore Daumier and Lucian Freud among others, and by Rossetti. The Barbican exhibition in 1988 exhibited some of the deeply private, erotically tinted images that will be seem in the ITV1 documentary Perspectives: Looking For Lowry on Easter Sunday 2011. The documentary will also feature an interview with Carol Ann Lowry. Though not related, she was 13 when her mother suggested she write to the great man for advice on how to become an artist. He was 70. Eventually he replied, formed a friendship that was part uncle and niece, part mentor and pupil. and in 1976 when he died of pneumonia, aged 88, he bequeathed his entire �300,000 estate to her, together with a substantial collection of hs own paintings - themselves worth a fortune. The �106 million arts centre, The Lowry, opened in Salford Quats in 1999.

Tate Britain has 23 Lowrys in its basement! KEY DATES Award - 1975 L.S Lowry was awarded an honorary Doctor of Letters by the University of Salford and the same degree by the University of Liverpool Award - 1967 L. S Lowry's painting- Coming out of school- was the stamp of the highest denomination in a series issued by the Post Office depicting great British artists Award - 1965 He was given freedom of the City Award - 1961 L. S Lowry was awarded an honorary Master of Arts from Doctors of Letters Award - 1945 L.S Lowry was awarded an honorary Master of Arts from the University of Manchester BIOGRAPHICAL CHRONOLOGY OF THE ARTIST 1887 Laurence Stephen Lowry born in Manchester, 1 November. Only child of R. S. Lowry, an estate agent, and Elizabeth Hobson. The family lived in Rusholme, a suburb of Manchester. 1895-1904 Educated at Victoria Park School, Manchester. On leaving he attended the private painting classes of William Fitz in Moss Side, Manchester. 1904 Joined the firm of This.

Aldred & Son, Chartered Accountants, 88 Mosley Street, Manchester, where he worked as a Clerk. 1905-15 Studied drawing and painting at the Muncipal College of Art, Manchester. 1907 Joined the General Accident, Fire & Life Assurance Corporation, 20 Cross Street, Manchester, as a Claims Clerk. 1910 Began work as a Rent Collector and Clerk with The Pall Mall Property Company Ltd., Manchester. 1915-20 Began to develop his interest in the industrial scene. During this period he also attended drawing and painting classes at the Salford School of Art, and continued to do so, infrequently, until 1925. His art school associations thus continued over a period of some twenty years. 1926-30 During this period he exhibited in open exhibitions in Manchester and at the Paris Salon. An Accident was bought by the City Art Gallery, Manchester. This was the first of his paintings to be acquired by a public art gallery. Commissioned to illustrate A Cotswold Book by Harold Timperley (Jonathan Cape, London, 1931). 1932 His father died.

First exhibited at the Manchester Academy of Fine Arts. First exhibited at the Royal Academy. 1934 Elected a member of the Royal Society of British Artists. Lowry with the Stockport Viaduct Six of his paintings were shown in a mixed exhibition at the Arlington Gallery, London. 1938 Chance discovery by A. J. McNeil Reid who saw some of his paintings while visiting the framers, James Bourlet & Sons Ltd. 1939 First one-man exhibition at the Lefevre Gallery. He exhibited there on some thirteen occasions. Dwellings, Ordsall Lane, Salford purchased by the Tate Gallery. In October his mother died. 1941 An exhibition of the artist's work was presented at the City Museum and Art Gallery, Salford. 1943 One-man exhibition at the Bluecoat Chambers, Liverpool. 1945 Made Honorary M.A., University of Manchester. 1948 Elected a member of the London Group. Moes from Pendlebury, Salford, to The Elms, Stalybrudge Road, Mottram-in-Longendale, Cheshire, where he lived until he died.

October: one-man exhibition at the Mid-day Studios, Manchester, where he exhibited regularly with the Manchester Group from 1946-1951. 1951 July-August: retrospective exhibition at the City Art Gallery, Salford. 1952 First exhibition at the Crane Gallery, Manchester. This gallery, under the direction of Mr. Andras Kalman, was the first commercial gallery outside London to show Lowry's work. Further exhibitions were held there in 1955 and 1958. Turning into the Crane Kalman Gallery, London, it showed his work on a number of occasions. Lowry is represented in the Collection of the Museum of Modern Art, New York. Retired on Full Pension from The Pall Mall Company Limited, Manchester, with whom he began work as a Rent Collector and Clerk in 1910. At the time of his retirement he had risen to the rank of Chief Cashier to the firm. 1955 Made an Associate of the Royal Academy. An exhibition of his work held at the Wakefield City Art Gallery. 1959 June-July: retrospective exhibition at the City Art Gallery, Manchester. Exhibited, Robert Osbourne Gallery, New York.

1960 April-May: exhibition of drawings and paintings at the Altrincham Art Gallery. 1961 Made Honoray LL.D., University of Manchester. 1962 Elected Royal Academician. September-October: retrospective exhibition at the Graves Art Gallery, Sheffield. 1964 In November, an exhibition in his honour was held at the Monks Hall Museum, Eccles. Twenty-five contemporary artists, including Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth, Ben Nicholson, Duncan Grant and John Piper, took part. The Halle Orchestra gave a special concert in Manchester to celebrate the occasion of his seventy-seventh birthday. 1965 June: received the Freedom of the City of Salford. 1966-7 Travelling retrospective exhibition organised by the Arts Council of Great Britain visited the Sunderland Art Gallery; the Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester; The City Art Gallery, Bristol; and the Tate Gallery, London. On 10 July 1967 the G.P.O. issued a Lowry stamp reproducing a mill scene. 1971 Exhibition organised by the Northern Ireland Arts Council in Belfast.

From 1971 the artist lived quietly at Mottram making occasional visits to the Seaburn Hotel in Sunderland where he liked to stay for two or three weeks at a time. During this period he painted infrequently and showed mainly at the Royal Academy Summer exhibition, although he ws not represented in the 1975 Exhibition. 1975 Made Hon. D.Lit. by the University of Salford. Made Hon. D.Lit. by the University of Liverpool. 1975 On 23 February, 1976 the artist died at Woods Hospital, Glossop, in his 88th year. LS Lowry Biography Blog L.S.Lowry Born in Manchester in 1887 Laurence Stephen Lowry was the only child of Robert and Elizabeth Lowry. He started drawing at the age of eight; and in 1903, he began private painting classes which marked the start of a part-time education in art that was to continue for twenty years.

In 1904, aged 16, Lowry left school and secured a job as a clerk in a chartered accountants firm, he remained in full time employment until his retirement at the age of 65. His desire to be considered a serious artist led Lowry to keep his professional and artistic life completely separate and it was not disclosed until after his death that he had worked for most of his life.In his preface to the 1976 Royal Academy Memorial exhibition, Sir Hugh Casson referred to L S Lowry as one of the great English painters of this century. An individual artist with a unique style,the work of Lowry spans the first half of the twentieth century recording with sensitivity and wit his own personal view of the people and architecture of the industrial north.His early training was at the Municipal College of Art, Manchester, where he was taught by the French artist Adolphe Valette who introduced him to Impressionism and of whom Lowry said I owe so much to him for it was he who first showed me good drawings by the great masters, he gave me the feeling that life drawing was a very wonderful thing.

Lowry was, however, unaffected by impressionist technique of Valette and continued to develop a more realistic approach to his art. In 1909 Lowry and his parents moved to Pendlebury, where initially he was not happy, and for some years ignored his surroundings. In 1916, whilst waiting for a train, Lowry became fascinated by the workers leaving the Acme Spinning Company Mill; the combination of the people and the surroundings were a revelation to him and marked the turning point in his artistic career. Lowry now began to explore the industrial areas of South Lancashire and discovered a wealth of inspiration, remarking "My subjects were all around me, in those days there were mills and collieries all around Pendlebury. The people who work there were passing morning and night. All my material was on my doorstep." By 1920, Lowry had developed his own unique style in his paintings.Street scenes, populated with workers, housewives and children set against a backdrop of industrial buildings and terraced houses had become central to his highly personal style. From now on he painted entirely from experience and believed that you should paint the place you know.

Lowry would spend his leisure time walking the streets of Manchester and Salford making pencil sketches on scraps of paper and the backs of used envelopes recording anything that could be used in his work. In his early factory scenes the emphasis is placed on the buildings and the atmosphere was often dark and sombre, however, as Lowry developed this theme the figures became more prominent and eventually he arrived at a marriage between the two where the figures and surrounding from a whole. Lowry had established his own particular style by 1930, he was encouraged by his teacher Bernard Taylor to try to make his figures and buildings stand out more and he began to experiment with setting them against a white background. He chose flake white building up layer after layer on the canvas before painting the subject matter straight on top. He used only four other colours: vermillion, prussian blue, ivory black and ochre which he applied straight from the tube. With the onset of the modernisation of the industrial north in mid 1950 Lowry lost interest in his surroundings and now concentrated almost entirely on figures silhouetted against a white background, occasionally standing on a hint of a pavement or near a ghost of a wall, but frequently suspended in time and space.

Lowry continued to sketch and closely observe his subjects and his works form this period capture the essence and nature of the Northern people; he frequently mixes young and old and he imparts to each figures an individual character. Shelly Rhode in her book A private view of L S Lowry wrote he had a new obsession, his single figures, his grotesques. The struggling, surging, misshapen homuculi who used to live for so long in the shadow of the mills emerging at last from their background to stand alone, as he stood alone. Lowry visited Wales in the 1960s with his friend and patron Monty Bloom which briefly revived his interest in industrial scenes. Lowry was impressed by the contrast between the industrial towns and the surrounding countryside, consequently his paintings from this period are brighter than his Lancashire paintings . However, towards the end of the 1960s Lowry began to lose his creative urge and, with the exception of the occasional moment of artistic inspiration he ceased painting almost completely. At the age of 88, Laurence Stephen Lowry died of pneumonia in 1976.

Although he had received critical acclaim for his work during the second half of his life, he never forgot the lack of recognition that he had received initially and he carried with him the feeling of isolation and rejection throughout his career. He refused the offer of a knighthood, as well as numerous other honours, and remained disillusioned with the art world despite the praise that was often heaped upon him. Lowry is always remembered as a man of remarkable resilience and sensitivity; he stood alone, unaffected by the influences of other artist and his inspiration came entirely from his own experience.Lowry's unique works continue to receive the critical acclaim the is so richly deserved. The most important private and public collections in the United Kingdom and abroad now hold Lowry paintings and drawings. The highest price for one of the artist's paintings was £1.9 million when 'Going To The Match' was sold in 1999. Later in 2007, the sale of the Lowry's painting "Daisy Nook Fair" achieved £3.8m. May, 2011 "The Football Match" painting (not 'Going to the match') by Lowry was sold for £5,641,250.

November, 2011 The 1960 painting of 'Piccadilly Circus' by L.S.Lowry was sold for £5,641,250 Recently the 'Going to the Match' painting has been valued at £6,000,000-10,000,000 We hope that you will browse and enjoy Paintings and signed prints by wildlife artist David Shepherd Also the work of William Russell Flint whose paintings and signed prints are regsarded as some of the finest watercolours in the world. Famous for his portraits of Cecilia, Flint's greastest works illustrate the architecture and landscape throughout rural France This holiday house near Brantome, Frane is ideally situated to enjoy the Dordogne Read more The work of Mr L.S. Lowry has become of great artistic and financial importance of recent years. A selection of his prints and paintings can be viewed here Our aim is to offer our clients an excellent service at unbeatable prices. L.S.Lowry, signed Prints, Lowry, Signed Limited Edition prints, artist, for sale Signed limited edition prints Limited edition prints unsigned The artist L.S.

Lowry who died in 1976 aged eighty eight was 51 years old before he was nationally recognised as an outstanding British artist. Known widely as 'The Lancashire Painter', he was in fact, the painter of an era. That era was the industrial Lancashire and Cheshire of the 1914-18 war, which he interpreted so powerfully and individually that a visitor to an exhibition of his works saw the streets outside the gallery through Lowry's eyes. There was little literal truth in his paintings. Their power was due to a deeper artistic truth. Yet he himself claimed to be a painter of what he saw, as indee he was. It was the way in which he transmuted what he saw that made his paintings unique. Modern Lancashire hardly attracted him Asked how he would set about painting Lancashire of the 1960s, he replied; 'My dear sir, I would not try.' If he was not entirely free from some bitterness over long delayed recognition, he was not soured by it.Perhaps out of a desire to see that young painters should not suffer his fate, he was always eager to stress their merits.

Early Ambition Laurence Stephen Lowry was born at Old Trafford, Manchester, only son of R.S.M. Lowry an estate agent, and Elizabeth Hobson. He realized early in life that he wished to paint, though from his mother he inherited a love of music. Later the family moved to Rusholme, and in 1909 to Pendlebury, a move that was to have great significance for Lowry as a painter. There he remained until 1948, his father having died in 1932 and his mother in 1939. Lowry himself moved to Mottram-in-Longdendale, Cheshire, but paid constant visits to his youthful sketching ground. He studied at Manchester College of Art and Design, and at the Peel Park Technical College, Salford. In 1918 he became a student of the Manchester Academy of Fine Arts, of which he subsequently became an honarary member after first exhibiting in 1932. In Lowry's student drawings, many of which were seen at Salford City Art Gallery, there was little, if any, suggestion of the artist that was to be.

In fact, it was the accident of missing a train to Manchester from Pendlebury in 1916 that set him on the road that won him belated acclaim. He left the station and wandering round the streets, found his first inspiration for the work of a lifetime in a tall spinning mill. But until he had his first London exhibition at Lefevre Gallery in 1939, he was practically unknown outside the Manchester area. But there, his was a different story. Manchester City Art Gallery bought its first Lowry, 'An Accident' (in fact a suicide), set in Pendlebury in 1926, the first of his paintings to enter a public collection and later acquired several more. Salford had also begun building up what is now one of the finest collections of Lowry's work in the country. More exhibitions in London followed and interest in his work grew. The Tate Gallery bought a painting and his work entered the Royal Collection. In 1955 Lowry became an A.R.A. and in 1962 was elected R.A. Manchester University made him an A.R.A. and in 1962 was elected R.A. Manchester University made him an honorary M.A.

and L.L.D. He became a Freeman of Salford in 1965 Important retrospective exhibitions were held at Salford in 1941 and 1951, at Wakefield in 1955, Manchester in 1959, Sheffield in 1962 and Abbot Hall art gallery 1964. These culminated in the Art's Council's large retrospective exhibition at the Tate Gallery in November, 1966. In 1964 a special birthday concert was given by the Halle Orchestra at the Free Trade Hall Manchester. Lowry remained steadfastly faithful to the Northern scene. Though in the 1960s he found new stimulus in Sunderland and Newcastle and produced some rather whimsical paintings like 'The Carriage' bought by the Queen in 1962, it was in close contact with the Manchester area that he produced his most memorable work. In February 1971, he paid one of his rare visits to London for the opening of an exhibition of 60 of his drawings at the Lefevre Gallery, Bruton Street.

He lived alone and was often referred to as 'The Lonely Painter.' Perhaps he was, but on the other hand, no man appeciated the independence and freedom of the solitary existence better than this provincial master who won himself a place in the history of English art. Lowry signed Prints and Lithographs. There are approximately 54 signed Lowry prints (signed, limited edition print titles) by and 17 lithographic prints. Approximately 26 unsigned, Lowry limited edition prints. Numerous open edition, poster prints of decorative not numbered or personally signed, of decorative value only, were published. The signed prints usually have an embossed stamp, by the Fine art trade guild, or that of the publisher. Some print titles are simply signed by the artist and numbered. Several print titles eg. 'Mill scene' print, 'Level crossing' print, and 'Market scene' print are simply signed in pencil by L.S. Lowry. But not stamped or numbered, although they are limited edition prints (editions of 750). England 01 623 799 309 All major credit/debit cards accepted.

Lowry both liked and understood these industrial areas, he had no need to travel abroad, journeying from one side of the city to the other gave him all the depth he required for his paintings. One of his first reviewers, Bernard Taylor, commented in 1921. Lowry's portrait of Lancashire is more grimly like that of a caricature, because it is done with the intimacy of affection. He emphasises violently everything that industrialism has done to make the aspect of Lancashire more forbidding than that of most other places. Many of us may comfort ourselves a little with contemplating suburban roads, parks, or gardens in public squares, or with the lights and colours of morning or sunset. L.S.Lowry has refused all comfortable delusions. Lowry has kept his vision as fresh as if he had come suddenly into the most forbidding part of Hulme or Ancoats under the gloomiest skies after a holiday in France or Italy' The life and work of L.S.Lowry Salford's artist Laurence Stephen Lowry began life in Rusholme, Manchester, November 1887, the only child of Mr R S Lowry from Ireland and his wife Elizabeth (maiden name; Hobson).

He attended a neighborhood school in Victoria Park, but took private classes from William Fitz, before begining his work as a clerk for an agency of chartered accountants in 1904, that would show him the many sights he would later use for his paintings. From 1905-1915 Lowry attended drawing and painting courses at the Municipal College of Artwork (later Manchester College of Art, now a part of Manchester Metropolitan University), where Lowry was tutored by the now well known an highly regarded artist, Adolphe Valette. He moved to Pendlebury in Salford together with his parents in 1909, for almost forty years Lowry lived here. Throughout this time Lowry attended art classes at Salford School of Art, growing a strange, almost morbid curiosity for the city and industrial landscape. Lowry was fascinated by its people, who toiled night and day against incredible odds, to make a living for themselves, working long hours in terrible conditions, with little to show financially. Large families living in small terrace houses with barely sufficient food, and the Fever Van never far away.

Lowry exhibited with the Manchester Academy of Fine Arts from 1919, as well as showing paintings in the Paris Salon. By the early 1930s Lowry was exhibiting at the 'Royal Academy', London, and was awarded an honorary Master of Art at Manchester College in 1945, and Doctor of Letters in 1961. In 1962 he was elected to the Royal Academy, and given freedom of the City of Salford in 1965. He lived in Mottram till he died in 1976; the people of Manchester showed an unprecedented homage to this great master of art. L.S. Lowry is without doubt, one of the most celebrated of British artists and his unique contribution to recording the interval, tradition and panorama of commercial Salford and Manchester is without parallel. His work is a most distinctive and comprehensive report of the pre and post World War Two northern industrial towns. Many people affiliate Lowry with "matchstick figures", but he's recognized to have produced over 10,000 works, ranging from completed oil paintings to swiftly drawn sketches. The local industrial scenes were his most frequent topics but he additionally painted seascapes and portraits.

Lowry was an amazing humorist and had intense insight into human nature, characterising it without sentiment. Later in his life Lowry worked on producing paintings of figures either singly or collectively, invariably in opposition to a white background. Throughout his lifetime, he also produced thousands of pencil drawings, these have become very collectable and the most detailed ones are very professionally drawn. Lowry was not registered with any doctor; in 1976 he died at hospital from pneumonia. He had little time for the financial sharks that would 'hound' him on a daily basis, and the galleries hoping to inherit a number of works in Lowry's will, they kept in close contact with him throughout his old age, only to learn that Lowry had left all his paintings to a lady, with the same surname (Carol Ann), who had written him a letter when she was a young girl, asking how she may learn to be an artist. His standing as one of the foremost British artists of the 20th Century was strengthened when the painting "Going To The Match" was sold for a record £1.9 million to the Manchester based 'Professional Footballers Association'.

Manchester's newly built museum gallery, The Centre in Salford Quays, now holds a major collection of his work. There is to be a major exhibition of paintings and drawings by L.S Lowry in The Tate Gallery 2013. There are relatively few signed prints now available. Many artists such as David Shepherd signed hundreds of titles, and each edition can sometimes be in excess of a thousand. But Lowry agreed to only fifty four signed prints, and each title ranged from 95 to 850 in the edition. (75 in the case of the lithograph signed prints) Once the signed prints had been published, the work was copyrighted and the original printing plates were destroyed so that apart from the original painting only the agreed number of signed prints were produced. Needless to say that after 50 or so years , from an edition of 850, there are a mere fraction of the edition that still exists in good condition. Many will have been lost damaged (often by the glass breaking), being stored in damp conditions or the case of several titles, fading, due to the printers who have not used the lightfast inks and acid free paper.

Our gallery in the East Midlands diplays over 100 limited edition prints, personally signed by Mr L.S. Lowry, undoubtedly the largest collection in the UK. Some interesting facts regarding L.S.Lowry's paintings;- Paintings, drawings and signed prints by L S Lowry have become some of the most sought after art work in the country today. Through the use of paint, canvas and pencil, this artist from the Manchester area in Lancashire, has managed to capture with remarkable accuracy and with direct, honest and a truthful vision, the spirit of a moment in time that has long since disapperared. Lowry shows the profound sadness and hardship endured by Lancashire's inhabitants on a daily basis, in a way that we can understand and have a greater insight to this strange and almost toturous way of life. We can see from a few examples how the price of L.S. Lowry paintings and signed prints have dramatically increased over the years.

" A painting recently sold for ten times the original price" The Thames from Whitehall Court (22" x 26" oil on canvas), sold for £520,000 Although less sought after than Lowry's views of the northern industrial areas, this work made a large return for the vendor when purchased in 1987 for £22,000. An increase of x 23.5 over the 22 year period indicates that it has been a superb investment and the returns were far in excess of both the FTSE 100 and the property market. The highest price for one painting was £1.9 million when 'Going To The Match' was sold in 1999. Later in 2007, the sale of the Lowry's painting "Daisy Nook Fair" achieved £3.8m. May, 2011 "The Football Match" painting (not 'Going to the match') by Lowry was sold for £5,641,250.

November, 2011 The 1960 painting of 'Piccadilly Circus' by L.S.Lowry was sold for £5,641,250 Recently the 'Going to the Match' painting has been valued at £6,000,000-10,000,000 Major Lowry Exibition at the Tate Gallery, London 26th June - 20th October, 2013 Lowry prints, signed limited editions Please take a few moments to view the paintings and signed prints by wildlife artist David Shepherd, The fine work of Sir William Russell Flint whose paintings and signed prints are highly collectable. Can be seen at this website Famous for his portraits of Cecilia, Flint's greastest works illustrate the architecture and landscape throughout rural France This holiday house near Brantome, France is ideally situated to enjoy the Dordogne The work of Mr L.S. Lowry has become of great artistic and financial importance of recent years. A selection of his prints and paintings can be viewed at Our aim is to offer our clients an excellent service at unbeatable prices.

by Jorge Lewinski Private Collection, © The Lewinski Archive at Chatsworth/The Bridgeman Art Library From June 26, Tate Britain is showing some 80 paintings by LS Lowry in a blockbuster exhibition which presents the artist within a wider art historical context. The aim is to show the serious side of this popular but often derided landscapist. Some surprising Lowry facts are revealed in the process. Here's what you'll learn... But not for long. Born in Stretford, Manchester, in 1887 to Robert, an estate agent, and Elizabeth, an aspiring concert pianist, Laurence Stephen Lowry enjoyed an affluent childhood. But a move in 1909 to the industrial suburb of Pendlebury marked a distinct drop in the family's social standing. The young Lowry hated his new home at first, but eventually became obsessed by the crowded streets and cotton mills that surrounded him. If his paintings seem emotionally distant - almost like stage sets, with cut-out figures and buildings reminiscent of scenic flats - Lowry's uneasy social status could provide the answer. In 1910 Lowry joined Pall Mall Property Company as a rent collector.

Despite his subsequent fame, Lowry worked full time for the company until his retirement in 1952. This remained a secret until after his death in 1976. Nothing annoyed Lowry more than being thought of as self-taught or naive. He attended evening classes in drawing and painting on and off between 1905 and 1925. His breakthrough came under the watchful eye of émigré French impressionist Adolphe Valette. Okay, so most of Lowry's vistas are indisputably of the industrial north, but thanks to the influence of Valette, his work taps into a tradition of painting city life that is more French than it is English. The title of the Tate's exhibition 'Lowry and the Painting of Modern Life' refers to the late-nineteenth-century French poet Charles Baudelaire's call to artists to engage with the contemporary world. Tate Britain is showing Lowry's paintings alongside those of Valette, the impressionist Camille Pissarro and Montmartre artist-chronicler Maurice Utrillo.

During the 1920s and 1930s, Lowry was certainly more successful – and more famous – in Paris than he was in London, showing regularly at the prestigious Salon d’Automne. 'Piccadilly Circus' (above) provides a clue. While the 1960 painting is one of only a handful of images of London painted by Lowry, the Tate hopes that it will help to dislodge his reputation as a regional artist. In fact, he was a frequent visitor to the capital. He showed at the Royal Academy of Arts from 1932 and at his commercial gallery, the Lefevre, until the 1950s. Later, he became a visiting artist at the Slade School of Fine Art, where he taught the likes of Paula Rego. He also popped down regularly to visit an aunt in Cricklewood.

Question: What was the first name of Stretford-born artist L. S. Lowry?
Answer: Laurence